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In my days of being the biggest fashion nerd on the planet, I’ve reviewed many things, both amazing and not-so-good, and today we’re going to be looking at a list of the amazing things – things that I love, things that I think were incredible purchases by me and that I’m excited that I own.
I’m actually wearing two of them right now, but we’ll be talking about boots, t-shirts, and a bunch of other interesting things like that. So I’m very excited to do that. Let’s get into some clothing I don’t regret buying for one second.
The Story Behind My Holy Grail Jeans
One time, I bought a pair of jeans, and I paid $75 for overnight shipping, missing the fact that there was a three-month wait time to get the jeans. But when they did come, they came overnight. They are Glenn’s denim jeans – nothing really special about the jeans, but the person who made them is incredibly special.
His name is Glenn. He is 62 years old – well, now he might be 65 – but he used to be a Levi’s master tailor, and before that, he grew up in Trinidad and always loved heritage workwear and denim and canvas and all that. Then, he finally did his own thing, made his own dream come true, and created Glenn’s denim jeans made in New York.
Everything is made in the US, even the denim – it comes from a place called Red Lion denim in Pennsylvania. They don’t have a website, so I can’t find out anything about them, but these are the straightest-fit jeans that I own. They’re fantastic, and Glenn seems like a very cool person that I have found out is impossible to get in contact with.
Two Epic Filson Jackets (And One Sad Story)
Number two on this list may be the most depressing story you’ve ever heard in your entire life, so just strap in and get ready. A while ago, I bought the Filson Short Lined tin cloth Cruiser jacket – a fantastic jacket. Its silhouette is absolutely unbelievable, to the point where there is one in rough out and one in smooth leather, and I want them both.
It fits me so well, and the fabric is beautiful, and it patinas over time incredibly well. It is an alternative to a denim jacket in terms of its flexibility, what you can wear it with, and stuff like that. But in Denmark, my girlfriend Taylor gave me this card that you need to have to get onto the train.
It’s called a Rejsekort card, and Taylor said to me, “Michael, don’t lose this card because I need it to get on the train.” And I said, “Okay, Taylor, sounds great. I’ll put it in the booby pocket of this jacket,” and then I ended up losing the entire jacket on my way home to America, and it sucks.
Oh, and also making this list is the Filson Mackinaw wool work jacket. It’s not as heavy as their Mackinaw cruising line or anything like that, but it’s probably my favorite wool jacket if you don’t count mine, which you can find here (wink wink).
But either way, the Filson one is 24-ounce wool. I like the crop length; that’s what I like about both of these jackets. They are fantastic. I would highly recommend you check them both out.
Boot Talk: From Russell Moccasin to Knickerbocker X Fracap
One of the most expensive things on this list is coming up! They’re here. They are Russell Moccasin Backcountry boots, and I love them for two reasons. First, they are a true moccasin construction, so they will last you for generations, not a lifetime.
Well, there’s three reasons.
Two is the pour-on slip sole, which a lot of people don’t like because there’s a synthetic material in this heritage boot that will last a really long time, but when I’m hiking, and I’m jumping off things and doing all these sick parkour tricks and stuff, I like to have more cushion because I want to have more protected knees.
And three, these are the most beautiful boots I think in my collection. I’ll write an article about my boot collection one day.
Next up, we have some shoes to rival the boots, I just think they look absolutely stunning. I have two pairs of these puppies, one in a brown suede, the other in a smooth black leather.
They’re amazing, and when I first got these puppies, everybody said, “Those are weird. I don’t like them,” and they made fun of me, but now all those same people look like stupid idiots because they’re sold out and they’re never coming back.
But these are Knickerbocker X Fracap collaboration shoots – shoe boots. Fracap does just exist as a brand, so they make a lot of similar stuff, but these are kind of the perfect blend of shoes that I would wear while hiking, which are also heritage style.
Everything about these I love – they’re super comfortable, they broke in really fast, resoleable so you can wear them for a super long time or just even change the soles if you’d like. Everything about them I highly recommend. Fracap still has a lot of amazing collaborations that I really like, especially the one with End Clothing, which is fantastic.
Let’s Talk T-Shirts: Japanese Loopwheel and Wonder Looper
As I’m writing this, I’m wearing a wild t-shirt. While we’re on the subject of t-shirts, there is one t-shirt and one brand that I think you should check out.
Number one: Standard and Strange’s Wakayama Loopwheel t-shirt. This is an in-house brand from Standard and Strange – it’s fantastic. If you don’t know what a loopwheel t-shirt is, you probably aren’t familiar with Japanese denim, but it is made of a fabric where the yarns undergo no tension when it’s being made, so it makes this really spongy feeling fabric that is also tougher than normal fabric that holds its shape better.
It’s not a very popular process of making a shirt because it is incredibly slow, so prices and all that stuff go up. This is my favorite loopwheel t-shirt by far (I should put an asterisk there).
The brand that I’m going to recommend by my good friend Bahzad is Wonder Looper, and they just – they did their thing. You probably know Bahzad from the brand Naked and Famous, a very famous denim brand – his wife Risa also is like a cotton genius.
Put them together, and you have one of the best t-shirt brands in the entire world, if not the best. They just dropped an Ultimate Pima shirt, but we’ll get to that in another article.
S.E.H Kelly: The Brand I Can’t Stop Thinking About
Okay, next up on this list of clothing I don’t regret buying may not make much sense because I’ve only owned one product from them, and it’s a $220 t-shirt, but S.E.H Kelly has to be my favorite brand right now, even though I don’t own a lot of stuff from them.
They are fantastic, from the way they take their photos to the way that they write about their products, the information they give you, and the style they have. It’s a very old-world tailoring style, so it’s not like the heritage stuff that I usually wear, but it’s a clean-cut version of a product that I would buy.
I love reading about how they made all the clothes. Either way, everything about S.E.H Kelly I’m a massive fan of – it just looks like master craftspeople doing exactly what they love.
The NOAH NYC vs J.Crew Sweater Dilemma
I hesitate to put this specific item on this list for a reason I’ll tell you about in a literal second.
Here is the item – it is from a brand called NOAH NYC. It is their cotton crew neck sweater. It’s amazing quality, very beefy, you can wear it to any event. I absolutely love mine, but the person who owns NOAH NYC is Brendon Babenzien. He’s a very cool, very stylish guy. I believe I saw him in New York, and I was wearing a really cool outfit, and he gave me an up-and-down.
Either way, it was him or someone who thought I was deserving of an up-and-down. But I hesitate to recommend this sweater to you even though I said it’s fantastic because I think it retails for like $228. It does go on sale on NOAH NYC a lot for like $115 or something like that, but Brendon is also the creative director for J.Crew, and now J.Crew has essentially the same sweater.
The construction looks very similar – maybe the NOAH NYC one is built a tiny bit better, but the one on J.Crew I got for like 50 bucks on sale. It’s a very basic thing, so it’s not like it’s a crazy patented design or anything like that, but I kind of hesitate to recommend the NOAH one and I would probably recommend the J.Crew one unless you want top of top of the line, but they’re both constructed really well.
Jim Green: The South African Boot Brand You Need to Know
I guess I didn’t really listen to the topic of this article too well because this is actually a great deal, but footwear from a South African brand called Jim Green – above and beyond expectations.
Shout out to Gareth from Jim Green – he sent me basically every boot that I could want from Jim Green, but the reason they’re on this list is because they’re built really well. They have a very cool story that you should see a video from Rose Anvil or Carl Murawski on, and they also just look fantastic.
They’re a little wider in the feet, but I don’t mind that, even though I have very, very slim and narrow feet. The Vellie is like a beefed-up Clark’s desert boot, the Razorback is a very, very good hiking boot, like an actual hiking boot, and then the Stockman is like a – it’s not technically a beefed-up version of a Blundstone because they’re constructed differently and Blundstones are probably more water resistant.
Either way, they’re fantastic. None of this stuff in this article is paid for or anything like that – I highly recommend them even though Gareth sent them to me for free.
The Perfect Hemp Shirt from Wellen
This next thing up isn’t particularly expensive, and it’s not a crazy interesting thing, but it does exactly what I want and looks exactly how I want it. I find myself being a bit excited to wear it because it gives off an older world look compared to a t-shirt and has more structure, so it doesn’t stick to me when it’s really hot outside.
It’s the Easy Hemp shirt from Wellen, which is with Huckberry somehow in some way – fantastic. It’s only 10% hem, so I would call it the Easy Organic Cotton shirt with some hemp, but either way, it’s fantastic – very simple, very old-world. You could buy it when you’re 20 and wear it until you’re 90, and nobody would say a word. I like that.
Wythe: Summer Camp Vibes Done Right
Next is more of a brand at large but I do have a lot of their pieces – the brand is called Wythe, and the reason that I like the brand is because it feels like this summer camp that I’ve never been to. I worked as a camp counselor, and I would not glorify it that much – I did have some great times, but I definitely wouldn’t make clothes about it.
But the clothes that Wythe makes are really fantastic, and they don’t have white, they have off-white, which I’m always a huge fan of because it adds a lot of warmth for me.
So I really like everything that they put out. Still, more specifically, my favorite things are the camp-friendly Pine Jacquard overshirt, the Indigo cotton linen button-down shirt, the Donegal corduroy five-pocket pants, and finally, I don’t have this yet, but maybe I will get it one day, their western tooled bag – it is a $700 leather tote bag that looks brilliant.
Watch This Review
Wrapping It Up
That just about does it for the clothing I don’t regret buying (part 1, maybe). This is not an exhaustive list – there are a ton of other brands that I didn’t mention, so if you like this article, I’ll write another one. Thank you so much for reading!
This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here.
The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.
